Pages

Monday, November 21, 2011

Nina Malkin is the author of Swoon (read my review here) and its sequel, Swear (available now). The covers are gorgeous and the characters nice and complicated...as you can see in this interview between main characters Dice and Sin:

+++

Candice Reagan Moskow, AKA Dice, and Sinclair Youngblood
Powers, AKA Sin, the heroine and hero of SWOON and SWEAR, chat each other up
about revenge, regret, penance, power, skinny-dipping, Newton’s law of motion
and love, love, love…

DICE: Here we are.

SIN: Indeed. Here we are. And how lovely you look.

DICE: Thanks. You too. You ready?

SIN: I’m not quite sure. It seems odd to invite others into
our personal conversation. Can you explain the purpose of this interview?

DICE: We’re trying to promo SWEAR, the sequel to SWOON. And
come on, Sin. Everything that’s gone on between us has been laid bare in black
and white.

SIN [encircling her, whispering]: Surely not everything…

DICE: [indulging, then swatting him]: Cut it out. Now, since
I narrate SWOON, everyone knows whatI
thought when I first set eyes on you. What went through your mind when you
first saw me?

SIN: You were my first sight, the moment my spirit
successfully transported, there beneath the ash tree. I looked up and I
saw…sanctuary. The care and concern in
your eyes. The warmth of your smile. I saw your heart, Dice, and it was love at first sight.

DICE: Yeah, well, you didn’t always treat me right, did you?

SIN: It is true. Love was not my reason for returning to SWOON.
Revenge was. That’s not an excuse—it is simply the fact. But as I was to learn,
revenge is a fool’s errand. What did you learn from SWOON?

DICE: I learned that anything is possible. I learned that
people can change. I learned…well, I began to understand about love—that it’s
not always sunshine and flowers. Love is the challenges you meet for love.

SIN: Well said. And did you not also learn to embrace your
power?

DICE: To an extent, yeah. But then, in the end…all I wanted
was to deny it, be regular, ordinary. So I guess the most burning question
when it comes to SWOON is: Sin, WTF? We have this amazing night, we fall asleep
in a tangle of limbs by the fire, but next thing I know you’re gone. What happened? Where’d you go? Why
did you leave me?

SIN: I had to serve my penance, dear lady. After all we went
through, it was my honor to receive your love, and finally be ready to return
it, with all my heart and—yes—soul. But spiritually, cosmically, I still had to
pay for the havoc I wreaked. And so I found myself in exile. A cloudy nowhere.
A cruel limbo. Yet the whole time, this omnipresent awareness of you. Didn’t
you feel me, too?

DICE: I did. My blue bruise—still as tender as the night you
put it there. And those surreal nighttime encounters, stronger than dreams,
more painful than reality. That’s why it was so hard to move forward. Did you
want me to get on with my life?

SIN: I did—and I didn’t. I hated to think of you pining, you
with so much energy, so much will, so much life. Even if it meant an eternity
of watching you, I would endure it as long as you were happy. But I was unable
to let you go—that was part of the torment. The only salve was the chance that
I might return somehow. And when you sang with Bruise Blue, the possibility of
our reunion grew stronger. Was it the same for you?

DICE: I don’t know. I was confused, torn. I never stopped
loving you, but I wanted to have a life. So then there was the band, and Tosh…

SIN: Yes. Tosh.

DICE: You’re not still…you’re over that now, right?

SIN: My lady, I love you. I even understand why you…strayed.
But the image of one’s beloved in the arms of another is indelible.

DICE: I guess. I mean, the time I saw you dancing with
Antonia Forsythe, the way she swooned in your arms. Even though I was 99.9999 to
infinity percent sure you weren’t into her, it was hard to watch.

SIN: Antonia. Poor Antonia. Most unfortunate.

DICE: Yeah, well. But talk about an adversary. The crap she
pulled—on Crane…on little Charlotte…

SIN [ruefully]: Must we speak of her? Can we not be more
lighthearted in this exchange? For instance, what is your favorite color, my
lady?

SIN: The greatest lesson? For there are many…but if pressed
I’d say that Newton’s law of motion—that every action has an equal and opposite
reaction—hit home rather hard. Behavior from my past had consequences I would
never have imagined. So I learned one must be very careful in all matters of
the heart. The law of motion can also be one of emotion—devastatingly so.

DICE: True that, Sin. For me, the biggest lesson is, it
makes no sense to swear to love. It’s futile. Love is more powerful than any
promise. Love is a gift beyond your control. When it comes to love, all you can
do is believe.

SIN: And I do, Dice. I do. And because I believe in love,
our love, I wonder about our story’s final chapter—SWOON, the trilogy.

DICE: Sin, that’s out of our hands. Our continuing saga
wouldn’t even have come to print in SWEAR if readers hadn’t made SWOON such a success.
If people embrace SWEAR as enthusiastically as they did SWOON, the publisher
will no doubt want to put it out as a book.

SIN [to you]: So
our fate is in your hand, dear reader. And I have faith that you will prevail.
So much so, in fact, I’ve already begun the final segment. It shall be called
SWAY. And this time, the narrator is none other than yours truly, Sinclair
Youngblood Powers!

Intrigued? Well, you can enter to win a copy of Swoon and Swear below! Just fill out the form!

Many thanks to Nina (and Sin and Dice, of course!) for the interview, and I hope you enjoy the books!

Welcome to The Compulsive Reader!

Formerly a YA book blog, TheCompulsiveReader.com is now the personal bookish blog of YA writer Tirzah Price! For more frequent dispatches about books, writing, and general nonsense, check out Book Riot, head over to Twitter or follow TirzahPrice on Litsy!